Jackie Schutz, a spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Scott, said officials pronounced 56-year-old Manuel Pardo dead at 7:47 p.m., Tuesday shortly after the lethal injection process began at Florida State Prison in Starke.

Before his execution, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections said that Pardo visited with eight people Tuesday. Pardo also ate a last meal of rice, red beans, roasted pork, plantains, avocado, tomatoes and olive oil. For dessert, he ate pumpkin pie and drank egg nog and Cuban Coffee.

Pardo's crime spree began soon after he was fired from the police department in the small South Florida town of Sweetwater. He had lied to a Bahamian court, saying he was an undercover drug agent in an attempt to free a colleague who was on trial for narcotics smuggling. He had earlier been fired by the Florida Highway Patrol for falsifying traffic tickets.

Most of his victims were drug dealers he had targeted for robbery, but some were innocent witnesses. At his 1988 trial, he told jurors he was doing society a favor by killing his victims.

Pardo was dubbed the "Death Row Romeo" after he corresponded with dozens of women and persuaded many to send him money.